Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has taken
“extreme positions” and failed to offer proposals that would
help most Americans.

Obama, 51, made the comments Aug. 23 in an interview with
the Associated Press that was published today. The president,
who is seeking a second four-year term in the Nov. 6 election,
said he knows that the economy hasn’t improved enough under his
administration for many voters.

“If they saw Governor Romney offering serious proposals
that offered some sort of concrete ways in which middle-class
families would be helped, then I could understand them thinking
about that choice,” Obama said. “But that’s not what’s
happening.”

Obama made his comments as Romney prepares to take the
national stage this week at the Republican National Convention
in Tampa, Florida.

Romney, 65, the former governor of Massachusetts, argues
that Obama has failed to make the economy better and contends
that a smaller, less intrusive government would jumpstart
economic growth.

Fear and Frustration

In a podcast released today, Romney said that “Americans
are looking to the White House for leadership, but all they’re
getting from their president is fear, frustration and blame.”

In the AP interview, Obama criticized Romney’s policy
positions, particularly on income tax rate cuts, abortion and
the elimination of a tax break for wind energy.

“His view of how we grow an economy is just contradicted
by the facts,” Obama said. “He has embraced an approach that
we tried for almost a decade, and it didn’t work. And he’s now
looking to double down on it.”

If he wins a second term, Obama told the AP, he would be
“prepared to make a whole range of compromises” with
Republicans in Congress, including some that would cause
criticism from Democrats. “But we’re going to need compromise
on your side as well. And the days of viewing compromise as a
dirty word need to be over because the American people are tired
of it.”

He wasn’t specific about those potential compromises,
according to the AP. Republicans control the House of
Representatives and are able to block most legislation in the
Senate, which is under Democratic control.

Obama continued to criticize Romney on several topics on
which they have sparred for weeks, including Romney’s refusal to
release more than two years of his tax returns and Romney’s
disputed contention that Obama wants to remove work requirements
for welfare.

“The small bits of disclosure that he has put forward
indicate investments in the Bahamas, or Swiss bank accounts,
that indicates to me a lack of willingness to take
responsibility for what this job entails,” Obama said.